Energy Apps for the Neighborhood

In a letter of 1860, the legendary Henry David Thoreau posed this question to a friend: "What's the use of a fine house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?" Today we could reply with an equally valid question: "What if a fine house could help create a tolerable planet to live in?" The answer to that challenging question may lie in your humble smartphone.

As of April 2014, the EPA was listing 290 "green apps" on its website. Many of these apps can be used directly to control a home's environmental impact by helping you understand and control household energy use. For instance, a meter-reading app for Apple devices displays household energy use in real-time, allowing residents to monitor and input readings and identify ways to reduce use. A "battery saver" Android app enables homeowners to control all their utilities from a phone by creating and saving power profiles reflecting personal energy use patterns. EcoCharger is another Android app that monitors all household appliances to detect overheating and overcharging, letting residents know by phone when to disconnect devices.

These apps for individual households offer eminently sensible and very smart energy control options.

In the UK, Connecting Homes, a program run by British Gas, is hosting a series of events aimed at changing how homeowners think about their energy use. British Gas has developed revolutionary technologies such as Hive Active Heating, an app that gives remote control of heating from anywhere via phone.

In the US, a similar system called EnergyHub claims it can save individual homeowners 20% on their energy, using smart thermostats. But energy saving doesn't stop at the picket fence. Neighborhood-level data analytics is the new focus of green home technology.

EcoFactor, for example, offers an automated system that connects homes in a neighborhood wirelessly, analysing local conditions to regulate temperature settings. Cloud-based analytics can inform individual home energy performance by using algorithms that "understand not only how individual homes heat up and cool down, but also the consumer's comfort preferences."

With EcoFactor's Optimized Demand Response service, peak energy loading for a neighborhood is monitored 24/7, and individual home energy use is reduced by fractions (say, at the thermostat), thus avoiding potential energy supply problems for the collective good.

The use of cloud-based analytics is relatively inexpensive, but the benefits are obvious, enabling neighborhoods to become energy ecosystems. Another approach is the Austin Energy-managed smart grid of 1 million consumers and 5,000 businesses, which is making greater control over energy use -- and improved efficiency -- the norm in and around Austin, Texas.

A parallel project run by the Pecan Street Research Institute in Austin has set up a residential neighborhood lab -- Civita -- which invites volunteer residents to join an experiment in smart grid technology. Colin Rowan, director of communications for Pecan Street, told Mission Valley News that monitoring the energy use in his home motivated him to combine laundry loads in the dryer and use less energy during peak hours.

These may be simple realisations, but they make smart energy monitoring on a community basis so powerful. The beauty of these examples is that any neighborhood can retrofit these virtual technologies -- no expensive, so-called green technologies need to be shoehorned into homes that have already been built. Most homeowners have the smartphones that enable the smart grids and smart meters to function. It's surely only a matter of time until all homes are synchronized with phones -- and, in turn, with other homes in the neighborhood. Strength in numbers.

schools as test beds? Hi Sunshine, sorry for late replies I have been ill. Gizmos are useless in themselves agreed. Maybe then smart meters and energy should be introduced in schools under geography. A high school project using smart meters seems a way to embed the benefits of these technologies into young people who will then know how to read them and act aupon them. I feel though that as enegy prices rise it will produce a groundswell of interest in actually engaging in saving energy so maybe the market will force people to educte themselves!!

smart meters Kq4ym, Without sounding like a walking cliche, meters are only part of the answer. Smart design is very important. Why reduce personal energy use if you still have no insulation or air tight windows etc. But education and action do start at home and maybe smart meters can help here.

remote readings versus intermittent I understand what you are saying about data being used by companies, however evene with traditional meter readings in person, that data is still beign recorded unless you pay via (estimated readings in th UK). I cannot see that energy data however can do much harm. I mean who really cares if a company knows your enegy use pattern, is it surely not more important that as a society we work together to reduce our consumption? Surely smart meters make it easier for people to do this??

energy and health Yes, Energy is so important and this is why historically in the UK it was publically owned (years ago!) I think that with private companies running it all, it does mean people can shop around yes, but they are more likely to be let down in my opinion as profits always get to the top of teh priority list no matter what legislation says.

community based This is an interesting viewpoint. Contracts are going to be difficult to write up if the energy is so fluid in terms of it being managed at community level. Is there a social obligation we are missing here in terms of household energy versus externally managed energy flows. As you say, turning off the power in a co gen situation or even just in the community ecosystem energy model leaves alot of questions as to who foots the bill of people over use and others are effected. Can we really impose a community model or should individual punishment (ie turning off individual houses) be the only way power companies can influence the community. I personally see more good coming out of this than bad, but it will have to be implimented carefully and openly if people are going to trust energy companies. Here in teh UK we are miles from this as we have been overcharged recently with energy cartels seemingly fixing markets and prices and services are far from great.

positive management Hi Newdream, yes this is a good point. If homes are connected it is much easier to remotely benefit households that are cut off. Maybe surplus energy could be given away to those in need (ie in deprived areas, free or reduced electricity). I dont know, that could be too utopian but there has to be positive ways that this energy ecosystem can help others.

Re: Community-based Power companies already refrain from disconnects when heat is needed, I think. In face, the smart meters give them the opportunity to turn ON the power for those in need, in emergency situations.

Re: Community-based Well, only that you are unlikely to die if you lose internet or phone connection but you could die if you are old and frail and your heating is turned off in mid-winter. The physical presence does allow time to assess the situation.

Re: Community-based It is always a challenge to determine how much capability should be permitted to a utility company. Should they be able to turn off the power remotely? Consider this: they certainly must have already had the authority to turn off the power for nonpayment, by sending someone to the property to disconnect the meter. Is there any additional protection for the consumer if the disconnect can be performed without a physical presence?

Phone companies and Internet Service Providers have been able to turn off the connection for a long time. Is it really that different that the same capability is available for the power company?

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